Iconic Ways to Use Tinned Fish
Tinned fish is trending — with so many options on the market. From Sichuan chilli crisp salmon, smoked rainbow trout and lemon olive oil sardines, we are spoiled for choice. With prices sky rocketing in economies around the world, people are opting to stay in versus dine out these days.
When dining in, treating yourself to a nice tinned fish (even though it’s pricey) remains more economical than going out for dinner. Hence the tinned fish trend!
There’s so many different types of tinned fish in the shops, it can feel overwhelming if you haven’t tried many before. If you are just starting to get into tinned fish, I would suggest starting with the basics first. My suggestions would be: a tin of anchovies, lemon olive oil sardines, rainbow trout and a chilli salmon.
Here’s some cute and iconic ways to use tinned fish. After all, it needs a bit of a spruce up.
Tinned fish in pasta.
Spicy tomato tuna spaghetti with pangrattato (breadcrumbs). Make a tomato sauce for the spaghetti and add the tinned tuna in before mixing through pasta. Make sure it’s been drained and warmed through.
Spaghetti aglio e olio (translation: spaghetti with garlic and olive oil) with pan-fried sardines. Over medium heat, pan-fry tinned sardines with olive oil until crispy on both sides. Set aside and add as a garnish to your pasta.
Tinned fish on toast.
Harissa salmon with tzatziki on olive oil fried sourdough. Mash a tin of tinned smoked salmon with rose harissa, plain greek yogurt, lemon, salt and add to a tzatziki smeared crispy slice of bread.
Pesto mackerel with fresh leafy greens, dill, avocado on toast. (mix 1-2 tbsp pesto through tinned mackerel, layer toast with avocado, pesto mackerel & fresh herbs).
Tinned fish for breakfast:
Turkish eggs inspired: on a plate, layer plain greek yogurt, scatter tinned trout, a poached or fried egg, fresh herbs and chilli oil.
Smoked trout bagel: mash a tin of smoked trout with sour cream, mayonnaise, seasonings. Smear onto a toasted everything bagel and add thinly sliced tomato, red onion, salt and pepper.
And my very favorite, an epic tuna salad sandwich:
The best ever tuna sandwich — if you’ve been exposed to the Joe and the Juice’s tunacado sandwich on social media, you might know what I’m talking about! They blend tuna and it becomes a creamy tuna salad for a sandwich. Eat it with super toasty bread for lunch or a snack. My take on it goes like this:
In a food processor, empty 1 x 185g tin of tuna in olive oil (if it’s preserved in olive oil, you can empty the whole tin with the oil, if it’s in anything else, drain it!) Blend with a handful of feta, a healthy amount of wasabi kewpie, 1 garlic clove, handful of parsley and spring onion, zest of 1 lemon, juice of 1/2 lemon, guindillas, green olives, a few dashes of hot sauce, salt and pepper. If you used the oil in the tuna tin, don’t add anymore. If you drained it, add a small amount of oil. Blend until desired texture, I like it smooth but not-too-smooth. Remove or add in ingredients that sound good to you. Basically, follow the formula of: tinned fish + something creamy (cheese) and (wasabi) + an acid (lemon) + herbs (parsley) and (spring onion) and anything else that sounds good to you (hot sauce) + (olives). You could either make this in a food processor or just combine everything together in a mixing bowl.
Remember you can always mix a flavor bomb through your tinned fish before adding it to your meal, like pesto through mackerel, harissa through salmon, chilli oil through tuna, green goddess dressing through trout. Add herbs, something crunchy such as fried shallots, crispy chilli crunch and a squeeze of fresh lemon…. voila!
If you have a favorite tinned fish recipe, comment below and let me know. There’s so many ways to use tinned fish. The one thing I stress is that it definitely does not need to be an expensive brand. If you can, buy any kind of tinned fish that is available to you. Add something delicious to it and enjoy.
